Movie Review: ‘Amateur”

“Amateur” is a Netflix original that has recently been trending on the platform, and I can see why. It teaches you life lessons while keeping you entertained at the exact same time.

This movie, directed by Ryan Koo, is about a boy who struggles to fit in with his new basketball team at school. The movie came out April 6, 2018 and according to Google users, 96 percent of them liked the movie, including myself.

“Amateur” has some really great actors and actresses in it. The main character, Terron Forte, is played by Michael Rainey Jr., Coach Gaines is played by Josh Charles, Terrons father Vince is played by Bryan White, and Terrons mother Nia is played by Sharon Leal. Coach Gaines comes across as a very cool coach in the movie as he is always there for his players and they seemed to enjoy being around him. In the movie, Vince is a very good dad – he helped his son on and off the court by counting down the time for his son during each of his “games” he played for practice. Nia made sure that her son stayed on top of his school work even though he was more interested in basketball, realizing he had the potential to make it pro. These characters all did a nice job acting out their roles and represented how all supportive parents should behave.

I really enjoyed the overall plot of this movie. It interestingly shows how different scouts try to recruit future players by using bribery such as paying off their families debt, getting them new a new house, car or by better bettering their grades without them actually doing any work in school. In the movie, Nia disagrees with Coach Gaines use of bribery because she wanted her son to work hard on and off the court. She believed he needed a good education for college.

“Amateur” is more of a drama and real-life situation movie that demonstrates what a lot of talented kids deal with in the world today such as basketball players, soccer and baseball players. The camera work was incredible. During the basketball scenes, the cameramen showed the scoreboard and the actions the teams performed while celebrating their victories. These types of clips show you how the team worked together as one and played hard for their victory. The movie also had some scenes where certain actions were put into slow motion in order to focus on what was happening in that moment. For example, when the players were shooting their shots during games, specifically winning shots, the camera men focused on the ball going in the hoop, showing just how important that one shot was for the team. This helped me understand the movie more because it gave me a better understanding of how much these games mattered to the players. When times get tough in the movie, I noticed that the scenes were darker and the camera focused on the main character more and his or her facial expressions. I got to focus more on how they felt and it made me wondering how I would feel in a similar situation situation.

My favorite part of the movie was when the team finally came together as one and were having good times on and off the court. Them playing so well together led them to getting better courts to play on and even some new furniture in their house. My only dislike about this movie was when Terron moved in to his new house with his teammates. I was not a fan of this part because his teammates were bullying him and made him carry their bags for them all the time just because he was the youngest player in the house and the newbie at the time.

This movie will inspire people to do whatever they believe in. Terron actually had a medical condition where he couldn’t read the numbers on the board at school or the time on the clock at basketball games and he couldn’t remember his left from right. This made it hard for him to read a clock, run plays correctly (because they ran plays by numbers) and know the score of the game. Despite his condition, he was able to put it aside and strive to be the best he could possibly be.

Overall, this was a phenomenal movie, especially for a Netflix original movie. Some Netflix movies aren’t always the best, they sometimes seem to just be thrown together coming off as uninteresting and boring. That being said, “Amateur” was a very good movie and was also extremely relatable. The only thing I wish was different was the ending of the movie, because it left me on the edge of my seat, wanting to see more. I’m praying for a sequel!